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San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Figs

San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Figs

San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Figs

March 3, 2013

I like sourdough breads with nuts and dried fruit, but not very often. They are enjoyed as something special and “different,” but I much prefer an unadulterated San Francisco-style sourdough or Pain au Levain as my daily bread. Well, it has been quite some time since I made a sourdough bread with dried fruit and nuts, and I have developed a craving.

This year, the quality of locally grown dried Calmyrna figs has been outstanding. I've been going through a pound of them every 10 days or so for the past several months. I would eat even more, but my gut wouldn't take it. (Let's just point out that dried figs are an excellent source of soluble fiber.)

I have made walnut bread with my San Francisco-style sourdough several times, and it has been delicious. Therefore, I decided to make a bread based on my San Francisco-style Sourdough with walnuts and dried figs. I took the baker's percentages of the nuts and figs from Hamelman's formula for Hazelnut-Fig Levain.

Total Dough Ingredients

Bakers' %

Wt (g)

AP flour

76

416

WW Flour

8

46

Bread flour

14

78

Medium rye flour

0.7

4

Water

69

378

Salt

2

11

Stiff starter

12

66

Walnuts

18

98

Dried figs

18

98

Total

217.7

1195

Stiff levain

Bakers' %

Wt (g)

Bread flour

95

78

Medium rye flour

5

4

Water

50

41

Stiff starter

80

66

Total

230

189

Dissolve the starter in the water. Add the flour and mix thoroughly until the flour has been completely incorporated and moistened.

Ferment at room temperature for 16 hours.

Final dough

Wt (g)

AP flour

416

WW Flour

46

Water

337

Salt

11

Stiff levain

189

Walnuts

98

Dried figs

98

Total

1195

Method

In a stand mixer, mix the flour and water at low speed until it forms a shaggy mass.

Cover and autolyse for 30 minutes

Coarsely chop or break apart the walnut pieces and toast them for 8 minutes in a 300ºF oven. Allow to cool.

Coarsely chop the dried figs, rinse in cool water, drain and set aside.

Add the salt and levain to the autolyse, and mix at low speed for 1-2 minutes, then increase the speed to medium (Speed 2 on a KitchenAid) and mix for 5 minutes. Add flour and water as needed. The dough should clean the sides of the bowl but not the bottom.

Add the walnuts and the figs to the dough and mix at low speed until well-distributed in the dough. (About 2 minutes)

Transfer to a lightly floured board, do a stretch and fold, and form a ball.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover tightly.

Ferment at 76º F for 2 1/2 to 3 hours with a stretch and fold at 50 and 100 minutes.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces.

Pre-shape as rounds and rest, covered, for 10 minutes.

Shape as boules or bâtards and place in bannetons. Place bannetons in plastic bags.

Proof at room temperature (68-70º F) for 1-2 hours.

Cold retard the loaves overnight.

The next morning, proof the loaves at 85º F for 2-3 hours.

45-60 minutes before baking, pre-heat the oven to 480º F with a baking stone and steaming apparatus in place.

Transfer the loaves to a peel. Score the loaves as desired, turn down the oven to 460º F, steam the oven, and transfer the loaves to the baking stone.

After 15 minutes, remove the steaming apparatus, and turn down the oven to 435º F/Convection. (If you don't have a convection oven, leave the temperature at 460º F.)

Bake for another 15 minutes.

Turn off the oven, and leave the loaves on the stone, with the oven door ajar, for another 15 minutes.

Transfer the loaves to a cooling rack, and cool thoroughly before slicing.

The crust was crunchy. The crumb was stained by the walnuts and, perhaps, somewhat by the figs. The flavor was very good, mildly sour sourdough with hits of nutty and figgy yumminess. The nuts and figs are sparse enough so the good bread flavor still comes through. This is a bread I could make a meal of. I think it will also be great with a thin spread of butter or cream cheese or with a tangy gorgonzola or sharp cheddar.

Similar to yourself my daily bread is most often a Pain de Campagne or Vermont Sour, but sometimes it's hard to ignore the flavour possibilities of what's available in the local markets. Your choice of fig and walnut in a mild sour loaf sounds wonderful and reminds me of a date and almond sour I made in the fall that had very good flavour but wasn'nt nearly as attractive as these lovely loaves of yours. Cheese and butter were the only two flavours I found that complimented the fruit-nut combination,with Port Salut being my fave, and a ripe old Cheddar next in line. Although I never got around to it, I thought it would go well topped with a roasted chicken salad of some kind, done open face.

Always a pleasure to read your posts David, thanks for continuing to inspire and share.

One of our favorite salads is mixed greens with either toasted walnuts or pecans, a blue cheese (Point Reyes, by choice) and a fruit (pear, dried cranberries, dates or fresh figs when in season). The combination of blue cheese, nuts and a sweet/tart fruit is marvelous. I generally have a couple thick slices of crusty sourdough bread with that salad. A slice of today's bread with some blue cheese and a simple green salad just modifies the packaging of that meal. Right?

One of my favorite breads to bake is a fig and anise loaf. The texture of the dough, due to the figs, is amazing. This loaf of yours reminded me of it. I can imagine it made a wonderful dough to work with too. Looks delicious and like no one flavor or texture dominates the loaf. How nice that it all worked out with your basic SF formula. Very convenient :-)

bread with the dark crust and the glossy, open crumb just they way they are supposed to be - as usual. Walnuts and figs are a fine combination as well. Glad you liked the Gorgonzola on it too. Figs and bread go back to ancient times with figs being one of the 7 Species and bread being the staff of life - although it was barley bread back then. I'm guessing your bread would have been served to King David - not that you aren't when it comes to bread :-)

I don't think that fruits were put in bread back then either. Dried fruits were formed into blocks ..... cut into slices and eaten like bread though. They did put dried fruits and other fruits when in season in their barley gruel though.

My oven acted up - we are indeed in the process of divorcing. Once we sell our home in Oklahoma (fingers crossed) we should be able to get decent kitchen appliances. Anyway, the oven shot the temperature way up in the end of baking, and I did not realize, so it's slightly over baked, perhaps.

But I love the texture and the taste of walnuts and dates together - a real winner!

with figs the bread is better than with dates, both Phil and I thought the same...

Monday at midnight I will be publishing a little post on my blog that will mention a "certain bag of figs" :-) And for now, just a photo of the crumb, we are now proud owners of two small loaves of fig and walnut sourdough...

(well, I give up - me and my new computer are having issues again, cannot seem to upload anything) -

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